InTime Review

As we come back from our 2 week "end of the school year" break we were asked to check out a lesson plan website called InTime.  This resource is different than most web resources offering lesson plan ideas.  The first thing that is evident is that the documented lesson plans are broken down into detailed components such as Content Area, Information Processing, Teacher knowledge, Technology, Software, Hardware.  This is very helpful not only because it makes it easier for a teacher to assess if the lesson is a good fit for their curriculum but it also provides a common framework regarding the way the lessons are presented.  Often times on websites where lesson plans are shared it is difficult sifting through them because of inconsistencies in how they are created and the methods used.  That leads us to the most impressive feature of this site...the VIDEOS.  I have been to many sites looking for lesson plans (and I mean a lot) and I have never seen a site that included such helpful videos.  Not only are you getting to see the lesson in action but you get a chance to listen to the creator explain the lesson.  The narrator talks about exactly what it covers and how to implement it in the most effective manner.  The videos that I watched were excellent and very representative of the documented lessons.
     The one flaw I found with this website is that it seemed somewhat out of date when looking at the software and hardware used to implement some of the lessons.  The copyright date of the site is 1999-2002 so that would make it close to 10 years old.  I imagine that it took many, many hours to compile these lessons and even longer to record and edit the corresponding videos so maybe it didn't get enough exposure and just fizzled.  Even so, I could still envision using a lot of the lessons either as they are written or just modifying them to fit current technology.  I will certainly pass this along to my colleagues as a possible resource.